Egoboo is Always Appreciated

[gerisullivan]

This one's for you, jamesb! For you, and for everyone who's ever been in your presence.

Britfan Leroy Kettle hasn't been to a convention in about 20 years. He showed up around the edges of Orbital 2008, this year's Eastercon and had such a good time he wrote a convention report and is talking about attending for real next year.

I've known Roy's name for years, but haven't read much if any of his fanwriting. If "Coming Round Again" is any indication, he's well on his way to being on my Hugo nomination ballot in the future. If he keeps writing and gets it published in a public forum, that is. If I thought I could publish Idea in the next couple of months, I would have already asked him for it. As is, I'm sure someone will. (And I'll put all of the fanzine publishing energy I can pretend to make the time for into the overdue No Goat's Milk Vein, the SFFY #12 LoCzine, rather than the even more overdue Idea.)

I loved Roy's spot-on description of jamesb:

"James Bacon was next – a fan who, if cloned about half a dozen times and wired into the national grid, would avoid the need for a nuclear power programme. Whoever overwinds his inner elastic had obviously done a good job."

Oh, yes, indeed.

(Quoted with permission.)

Comments

[bovil.livejournal.com]

Any chance you could let us know where this is pubbed?

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

As of now, Roy's just put it up on the InTheBar mailing list. InTheBar has limited distribution/membership...and it has the distinction of being the mailing list that broke me.

Before InTheBar, I read all messages posted to every fannish list I'm on. Y'know how traffic ebbs and flows, how a discussion will break out and suddenly a list will top 1,000 or 2,000 messages in a month and then drop back down to its usual lower traffic levels? InTheBar has averaged 4,000-6,000 messages a month...for more than two years now. The list is well named -- it's like being in a noisy bar pretty much all the time. Membership is primarily Brit fans from the '60s and '70s, many of them gafiated for as long as Roy had been. There are a handful of likely suspects from this side of the Pond.

If I hear that it's going to be published, I'll do my best to mention where to look for it. And if no one asks for it in a day or two, I'll suggest to Roy that he consider putting it up directly via eFanzines.com. I think it would read well to a wider audience, though it would probably benefit from a bit more explanation in a few places since there are several casual references indicative of a report written for a known audience.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Marty Cantor published Leroy Kettle's old phart's minicon report from Orbital in No Award #17. It's available for download from eFanzines.com.

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

That's so wonderfully descriptive of James. :-)

[thirdworld.livejournal.com]

That sums James up quite nicely.